Blood Bikes Scotland Service Expansion

Aim

To initiate & support a new Blood Bike service in Tayside that can directly support NHS Tayside to help them save money & improve efficiency

Blood Bikes Scotland is a registered charity (SCIO) that operates a free, transportation service for NHS Scotland specifically in NHS Lothian, Borders, Forth Valley and Fife.  We have ambitions to extend our service coverage to NHS Tayside, hence this project

About Blood Bikes Scotland

Using fourteen specially adapted Hi-Viz motorbikes and three cars, our dedicated team of 130+ volunteers transport blood, test samples (including COVID-19), medical equipment, baby milk and medication to/from Hospitals, care homes and patient’s homes. Our service is simple. Where the NHS would ordinarily make use of an expensive taxi or courier to transport such items, we offer this service free of charge as a way of ‘giving something back’.  Blood Bikes Scotland support teams in both primary and secondary care including GPs, District Nurses, Care Homes, Hospices and Community Hospitals as well as Secondary Care Hospitals.   This service is provided throughout the year in all weather and always with a smile and in a friendly, trusting manner.

We provide an efficient and sustainable service that is patient-focused and a pivotal support aspect to patient care both in the hospital setting and in the community. Although the name Blood Bikes implies we only transport blood, blood samples and blood products, this is only one aspect of what we deliver. Items such as specialist baby milk is carried to premature babies, sometimes collecting expressed breast milk from the mother in their home and taking it to the hospital. We take medication to patients in their homes and deliver new prescriptions to District Nurses while they are still in the patients home so that Palliative patients can receive changes to their pain medication quicker.

The service has rapidly expanded and we responded to over 10,100 requests from the Trusts we serve in 2020, saving the NHS many tens of thousands of pounds.  We completed over 5,000 runs in 2019, including 2 long distance relays between Edinburgh and London, so you can see how the demand for our free service is increasing.  All volunteers for the charity give their time freely and all monies raised by our own fundraising goes directly to running our fleet.  We are 100% self-funded and 100% voluntary.   We receive no statutory funding.

In 2021 we have ambitions to expand our existing service to support similar NHS & Health locations in Tayside, offering our initial service to the transport hub within Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. Talks have been very productive and we now need to position vehicles (a bike initially) and volunteer riders and controllers to run the service on a daily basis. To do this requires funding, hence this appeal for support. 

It is envisaged that our service to NHS Tayside will commence early Summer (June/July) so timing is perfect. Rider/Controller recruitment and training is already underway and going very well!

This project successfully funded on 16th June 2021